1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for processing a photosensitive material, particularly to a processing apparatus by coating a processing liquid to a photosensitive material whereby processing the photosensitive material.
2. Prior Art
Photosensitive materials, such as photosensitive films, photographic paper, lithographic printing plates and the like, on which images have been recorded are processed with a processing liquid such as developing solution (activator), fixing solution, neutralization and stabilizing solution (stabilizer), and rinsing water. Apparatuses for performing such processes upon photosensitive materials include a known dip-type processing apparatus wherein the photosensitive materials are fed into a processing tank storing a processing liquid by feeding means comprising pairs of feed rollers and the like and then dipped in the processing liquid, thereby subjected to processing.
In such a dip-type processing apparatus, the processing liquid is deactivated due to repeated processings for many photosensitive materials or developing degradation with time resulting from carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere. The processing liquid is recovered from the deactivation by adding a replenishing fluid to the processing liquid. This causes a difference between the ingredients of the processing liquid when the process starts and the ingredients of the processing liquid after a certain amount of processing continues, failing to achieve exactly uniform processing. Also, such a dip-type processing apparatus involves problems that it requires a great amount of processing liquid and must dispose a great amount of waste liquid whereby the running cost is high, and maintenance of the apparatus becomes difficult.
To solve such a problem, a coat-type photosensitive material processing apparatus has been used for coating a photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material with the processing liquid in amounts required to process the photosensitive material to perform processing in place of immersing the photosensitive material in the processing liquid as disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 237455/1987. For example, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 237455/1987, as such a coat-type processing apparatus, there is disclosed a processing apparatus in which a processing liquid is discharged from a processing liquid feeding nozzle having a plural number of processing liquid-discharging holes to a roller the surface of which is roughened by, for example, forming slender holes on the surface thereof (hereinafter called to as xe2x80x9csurface roughened rollerxe2x80x9d), and the surface roughened roller is rotated in tough with the photosensitive material to coat the processing liquid.
However, in the processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 237455/1987, there is a problem that a photosensitive film of the photosensitive material is injured. Also, it is preferred to minimize an amount of the processing liquid in view of the running cost or environmental problem, etc., but in the above-mentioned processing apparatus, if the amount of the processing liquid fed to a processing liquid feeding nozzle is made a little amount, it is difficult to make a feed amount of the processing liquid uniform so that there is a problem that an amount of the processing liquid becomes ununiform.
To solve the above problems, a processing apparatus having a processing liquid supplying portion at upper portion, a bottom end thereof is a slit-shaped opening, and a processing liquid is coated through the opening portion is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,092, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 8956/1994, and Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 27677/1994. The desired object can be principally accomplished by the processing apparatus, but there are problems in properties and safety as a coating apparatus. That is, there are principle problems that the feed port and the slit are directly connected so that the processing liquid is difficultly spread uniformly over the whole width of the coating apparatus, and a stable meniscus can be hardly formed since the top end of the slit is in tough with the surface of the photosensitive material. According to the above, there are also problems that coated amounts to the coating width direction and the flow direction of the photosensitive material become ununiform, and, in coated surface quality, longitudinal streak-shaped unevenness or liquid cracking (the so-called rivulet on coating technology) is likely caused.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus which can process uniformly and stable over the whole surface of a photosensitive material with a little amount of the processing liquid. Another object of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus in which an amount of a waste liquid becomes an extremely little or none.
The above objects of the present invention can be basically accomplished by a processing apparatus of a photosensitive material having a coating means of a processing liquid to a photosensitive material, which comprises a slot applicator having a manifold and a slot at the inside of the applicator being used as the coating means.